Photo's sought of some KG 51 officers
 

Hello,

For an article about III./KG 3 operations with He111 and V-1's from Venlo airfield in WW-2, I was wondering who can help me with 1 or 2 (portrait?) photo's of one of these III./KG 3 officers who previously flew - or might have flown - with KG 51:

Oblt. Erhard BANNEICK
Oblt. Gunther BOHNET (perhaps from KG 77 instead of KG 51)
Lt. Ludwig SCHMALHOLZ (not sure whether he was in the KG 51)
Hptm. Ewald TUSCHE (Kp.Chef 2. FBK KG 51)
Hptm. Paul Gerhard Martin VETTER (Gr.Kdr. II./KG 51)

Of course, you will be credited accordingly. Many thanks in advance!

Best regards, Marcel

Re: Photo's sought of some KG 51 officers
 

Marcel: Just done an article for Flypast on KG 3 and KG 53 ops so you might like to get in touch? As to photos, they are very rare as they were forbidden to take photos and by this stage of the war, photographic paper and interest was rare. Of interest to you, this is taken from the text:


All three Staffelkapitän of III./KG 3 had now been killed in action in the space of six days, all hard men to replace so late in the war.Grünewald had been awarded the German Cross in Gold and Honour Goblet while an Ofw in 2./KG 3 in 1942, Banneick had flown with II./KG 51 in Russia and had been awarded the Honour Goblet while Bohnet had flown anti-shipping and torpedo missions with 7./KG 77, had been shot down off Malta and later rescued on July 27, 1942 and had too been awarded the German Cross in Gold and Honour Goblet.

Re: Photo's sought of some KG 51 officers
 

Hello Chris,

Thank you for responding and the interesting details about those Kampfflieger. As you perhaps do remember: I am/was mainly focussed on the German nightfighting from 'my' airfield Venlo, so apart from some publications, my knowledge about the Kampfflieger is rather limited.

From the perspective that the Dutch airfields at Gilze-Rijen, Eindhoven, Volkel and Venlo were prepared for He111/V-1 operations (building of 3 Richthäuser at each airfield) I assembled the available data of He111/V-1 missions partly from Peter C. Smith's Doodlebug-publication, the flight log of Hans Jöhrdens, NVM's etc.
I also solved a long term mystery about two huge explosions on Venlo airfield in the night of 23/24 August 1944.

I welcome the idea to exchange info, the best way to do so is directly by email: I guess I have your mail address already and in case you have lost mine, it is marcelhogenhuis@gmail.com

Warm greetings from Venlo, Marcel

Re: Photo's sought of some KG 51 officers
 

Hi Marcel,

I could help you with a photo (no portrait) showing Vetter in front of his men. This photo is from his time with KG53. I wil get in touch with you later this week.

@Chris, in which Flypast issue is your article publiced?

Kind regards, Thomas

Re: Photo's sought of some KG 51 officers
 

I believe it is due in November. I am not sure but I might have one of him with KG 51 but he is a bit of a mystery man, confused with the other Vetter. You might like to know I have quite a number of III./KG 53 photos, many from the estate of Hptm Siegfried Jessen

Marcel-have emailed you

Re: Photo's sought of some KG 51 officers
 

Hello Thomas,


Many thanks for your kind and gratefully accepted offer! During my research I always came along many names, but so far I rarely saw photographs of those leading officers (but as I wrote: nightfighting is my main subject).



My email address is info@hogenhuis.info


Best regards, Marcel